


Nobody Said It Was Easy

by dvasing



Series: Next Generation Batkids AU [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Justice League - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Implied Relationships, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-29
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-05 07:08:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,095
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6694546
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dvasing/pseuds/dvasing
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bart Allen is developing a nasty habit of keeping secrets. This doesn't end how he expects. (Part of the Next Generation Batkids AU)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It had been three days since anyone had heard from the speedster. Normally this wouldn’t be too alarming since Bart was known to be one of the more unpredictable members of the team, but he’d been needed and he hadn’t bothered to check in in three days. Usually if Bart was just doing something else, he’d drop whatever it was and show up within seconds. It had become even more worrisome when not even Jaime or Tim had any clue as to where he was.

Damian was still rather new to trying to not creepily check in on his teammates, but Bart had given him reason to check in so here he was. Climbing through the living room window in full on Batman costume. He’d tried the door, but received no answer. Once he was through the window, he looked around. Nothing seemed out of place, even if he’d only been in Bart’s home a handful of times before. It was what Bart called an “organized mess” still, but nothing seemed to shout that something was off.

Still, Damian was being cautious. There were no lights on, so Damian had to be careful of his surroundings. Wherever Bart was, he’d most likely attempt murder if Damian stepped on anything he deemed valuable.

Quickly Damian discovered Bart’s phone was tossed aside on the floor blinking with the notification of several missed messages and calls. He’d remember that if he needed it later. Walking towards the bedroom, Damian noticed the door was halfway open. He gently pushed it open and noticed the house wasn’t as empty as he thought it was. Bart was right there, sitting on the floor in the dark.

“Allen?” Damian asked quietly. When he didn’t receive a response after a few long seconds he spoke again, “You’ve been home this whole time?”

“No.” Came the quick response.

Bart movied now, shaking his head and standing to face Damian. Damian removed the cowl and frowned.

“Where have you been?”

“...”

“Bart,” Damian tried, “People have been trying to contact you for three days. You were needed.”

“I wasn’t here for a little while, that doesn’t warrant a damn search of my house.”

“You’re part of the league. You have a responsibility as the Flash. If you’re gone for three days then you should alert us of your location so someone can fill your place and take care of the city.”

Bart stayed silent again but he looked away from Damian. Damian couldn’t tell what was going through the man’s head. This was unusual behavior for Bart to say the least.

“Where were you?”

“Doesn’t matter.”

“It does, people were worried.”

“I’ll call them later then. So yeah, case solved, investigation over, go home, Damian.”

Damian was unsure what to do. Bart was being oddly confrontational and he had gotten barely any information thus far, but questioning him further probably wouldn’t result in anything good.

“I...want to know where you were. You had people worried, I’m sure there was a reason for that.” Damian spoke slowly, not sure of his own words.

“Did you consider in that smart ass head of yours that I don’t want to talk about it?” Bart nearly shouted, “Go the fuck home, Damian.”

“Fine.” So much for trying, “At least call Tim and Jaime, they keep asking about you.”

Bart nodded and went back to how he’d been before. Sitting on the ground staring at nothing in particular. Damian didn’t move for a moment. He wondered if leaving Bart like this was really the best idea but there wasn’t much else he could do. Bart shut him down quickly and angrily. He didn’t want to talk and Damian couldn’t make him.

“If you change your mind, I will make myself available to you…” Damian mumbled before leaving. He shut the door how it had been before and put the cowl back on. After slipping out the window, he took a moment to consider what had gone down and whether or not he should investigate further.

Bart was home and he appeared to be physically unharmed. Surely the man would open up to someone he was closer to.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bart can keep his secret from anyone-- well, anyone except Jaime Reyes. A certain conversations ends up making Bart believe things are looking up. He can only hope it stays that way.

Bart appeared the next day at a League meeting as though everything was fine. He was greeted by the others but it was obvious they were expecting an explanation. He provided none, which Damian had expected. The rest of the team pretended like it didn’t bother them and no one pried for answers right then, but Damian didn’t miss how Diana went to speak to Bart privately after the meeting.

He didn’t ask how the conversation went. It wasn’t his business. He’d offered Bart a shoulder to cry on and the man had declined, so he left it at that. Bart was back and seemingly unharmed and that was what mattered. Damian didn’t feel a need to pry.

While he didn’t want to pry, others did. Tim tried in his own way. Bart was too familiar with Tim though, and caught on right away when he was being questioned. No matter how casual or vague Tim had tried being, Bart never gave any information. Kon approached as a worried friend but ended up not pushing. The two gave up rather easily, but they ended up being the least of Bart’s problems.

Jaime was constantly bringing it up. Where had Bart gone? What had happened? Why wouldn’t Bart tell him of all people? They were best friends, they were close, so Jaime was confused when Bart kept the secret from him too.

“You were gone for three days and you expect me to just forget about it?” Jaime had questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“Uh, yeah, I mean, everyone else has?”

“I guess I’m not everyone else, then.”

“Yeah, you’re nosey,” Bart rolled his eyes and shook his head, “Look I’m already over it so you should be too. Nothing happened, man! It’s all good!”

“I’m pretty sure ‘all good’ doesn’t warrant keeping secrets.” Jaime said, frowning.

Bart still hadn’t budged. Even when Jaime legitimately pissed him off from asking so much, he didn’t give any information. It bothered him that Bart was keeping secrets from him and it bothered him that no matter what, Bart didn’t even accidentally let something slip. No matter how much it bothered him, Jaime eventually accepted Bart wasn’t going to talk about it.

But that didn’t make him stop worrying.

“Bart,” Jaime caught the younger man’s attention.

They were currently at Bart’s watching some weird reality TV show. Jaime thought it was stupid but they both got a good laugh out of it. Besides as long as Bart enjoyed it, Jaime would have been fine with watching it even if he didn’t find it occasionally funny.

“Hm? Yeah?”

“I’ve been thinking…”

“Oh boy,” Bart turned to face Jaime, “You sound serious.”

“I am.”

Bart frowned a little. He muted the television so he could give Jaime his undivided attention. Wherever this was going, he could tell it was very serious to Jaime.

“So,” Jaime began, “I’ve been thinking.”

“You said that part already.”

Jaime sighed, but paused to better collect his thoughts.

“Alright, we’ve been friends for along time now. We’re adults, you’re even in the Justice League as the new Flash. And I know I’ve made things tense these past few months with my prying over when you were gone, and I’m sorry about that,”

“Dude, you’re forgiven. It’s fine, I know it’s just because you were worried.”

“Yeah, I was really worried. I know worse things have happened than losing communication for three days, but the thought of not knowing what happened to you made me realize that I don’t know what I’d do without you. I know I shouldn’t have pried and bothered you about it for so long and I’m sorry it’s taken me four months to say that I’m gonna stop.”

“Jaime, man, really, it’s ok,” Bart was feeling a little overwhelmed with how apologetic Jaime was. Sure Jaime’s prying had been annoying at times and they’d argued a bit over it, but he knew it came from a good place. He couldn’t stay mad at Jaime for worrying about him.

“You’re my best friend, Bart, I would never want to ruin things with you. I might push you for answers and irritate you sometimes but I’m not trying to push you away. I guess I just wanted you to know you could trust me but I know you do.”

“I do,” Bart assured him, “I know I can tell you anything. I mean, I did tell you about how I’m from the future and you kind of turned into an evil more ripped version of yourself, so I know somewhere, deep down, I can tell you. I’m just...not ready to. I’m not ready to tell anyone anything about it, but you’d be the first I told.”

“...Can you just...answer one question? Just one and I’ll drop it forever, ok? I just… I need to know...” Jaime nervously requested.

Bart was quiet for a moment.

“...One.”

“Were you hurt?”

“...Kind of. You could say that.”

“Alright…” Jaime frowned, “You’re ok now though, right?”

“That’s two questions,” Bart mentioned, “But...yeah. I guess I’m ok. I will be.”

Jaime couldn’t help himself. He pulled Bart in for a hug and was glad when Bart returned the favor, hugging Jaime tightly.

“We’re a couple of saps, you know?” Bart mumbled.

“I guess we are,” Jaime chuckled, “But that’s fine by me,”

“Maybe I’d prefer dinner before bear hugs, you know, soften me up a bit, get the mood going.” Bart teased.

Jaime laughed and pulled away. He gave Bart a curious look that definitely caught Bart’s attention.

“I’d be down for that,” Jaime said without thinking.

Bart raised an eyebrow.

“Down with taking me out to dinner before bear hugs to get in my metaphorical pants?”

He didn’t miss the way Jaime’s face turned red and he definitely didn’t miss the way Jaime tried to hide his blush by looking literally anywhere but Bart.

“Ok maybe not to get into your pants,” Jaime clarified, “Metaphorical or literal. But uh, dinner, that’s good. Just...cuz.”

“Mhm dinner just cuz. My pants are insulted.” Bart smirked, “Maybe I’m a little more than just the best friend you occasionally worry about when they disappear for three days?”

“If you were,” Jaime spoke up, “Would that more than best friend be interested in dinner? As in a dinner date,”

“Food is the way to my heart, but you already knew that,  _ best friend _ .”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did rewrite this chapter to add a bit more. I hope it's alright!! I had to redo this chapter so that the next one would focus on Bart's kid coming around, so that's something to look forward to I hope? I wanted to establish Bart and Jaime as a pair so I hope I did good in explicitly stating yeah, they'll be dating soon! Also for any clarification: The next gen au is (obviously) set in the future and a lot of old League members are retired or gone. Bart's the new Flash, Kon's Superman. Diana is still Wonder Woman. I hope to do a lot more universe building with later stories!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jaime finds out about a rather shocking secret Bart attempted to keep from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the conclusion to how Bart's kid came to be. References to Tim a lot in this chapter. There will of course be more stories in this au, I'm just wrapping up this one! Also I will be posting chapters to tumblr now too!

Things had gone fine for a few months. Jaime and Bart had officially started dating and Bart seemed...happy. He seemed really, really happy. Jaime had assumed everything was going great, but he guessed he’d thought wrong. Waking up after a rather interesting night with Bart, he found the speedster was gone. All that was left was a note saying something had come up and that he’d be back. Jaime felt his heart drop.

The days had ticked by yet again. It was getting disturbing to some how easily Bart could stay off a radar. Similarly to the first time Bart had gone missing months ago, no one had seen him or heard from him. Only this time he didn’t come back after the third day, or the fourth...or fifth. If Damian hadn’t promised he was keeping a lookout on Bart’s apartment, Tim probably would have come out of retirement just to find his friend.

Damian was considering taking Tim up on his offer to at least help when the one week mark ticked by, but after a flash of color caught his eye he had a feeling he wouldn’t have to. He could only hope Gotham would keep itself together long enough for him to have a talk with his teammate.

He moved slowly, though he knew he didn’t need to. Bart, or he hoped that was Bart, had seemed to zip inside but he stayed put for once. It wasn’t like Bart would find Damian in the night unless he was looking, but a little caution never hurt. Going towards the same window as he had used the last time, Damian slipped inside and found all the lights on but the apartment was rather quiet, save for some noise in Bart’s bedroom.

Damian made his way to the door and listened closely. No red flags, just frustrated mumbling that was definitely Bart’s voice. No time better than the present… Damian opened the door.

“Allen--”

“Do  **not** come in here--!”

“Is that… A child?” Damian could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Bart had been gone for a full week and to see him looking exhausted and holding a baby was not how Damian thought they’d meet again. He’d expected an attitude like last time, maybe for Bart to even force him to leave for intruding again, but not...this.

“This isn’t...what it looks like…” Bart tried, but he didn’t even seem convinced by his own words.

“Bart…” Damian spoke slowly, taking the cowl off, “Where did the baby come from?”

Bart gave him a look.

“Where do you think, Damian?”

“It’s yours, then.” Bart’s silence answered the statement and told him all he needed to know. “I wasn’t aware you had… I had thought you were with Jaime.”

“I  **am** ,” Bart seemed insulted at what Damian had suggested, “This has nothing to do with him and me, and you have nothing to do with us so stay out of it!”

The baby, which had previously been sound asleep, shifted in Bart’s arms and let out a small cry. Bart let out a distressed noise.

“Shit, not again, come on, shut up…” Bart mumbled, attempting to rock the baby in his arms. “It keeps crying… Every time it wakes up, it just keeps crying…”

“...That’s...expected. Tim’s daughter cries often.” Damian wasn’t sure what to do with himself as he watched Bart struggle to keep the baby calm. He wasn’t doing a bad job, but he could tell that Bart was clueless.

“Do you want me to tell the League that you’ll be...occupied?” Damian asked.

Bart glared at him.

“Don’t. This is temporary. I’m gonna take care of this and I’ll be back. I just need a day or two.”

“I understand.”

Damian liked to believe Bart knew what he was doing, but the man seemed so frustrated that he couldn’t leave him alone without knowing someone else would be able to help him. He didn’t tell Bart about alerting Jaime of his return before leaving.

Bart barely got a full hour alone before he heard a loud knocking at his door. The baby had just fallen back asleep, the last thing he wanted was for it to wake up again and keep him up all night. He was at the door in less than two seconds, prepared to shout at whoever it might be to keep it down, but was completely shocked to find Jaime standing there, looking pissed.

“Jaime,”

“Don’t.” Jaime’s voice was cold.

He barged in without another word and glared at Bart.

“I had to learn you were ok from  _ Damian _ ? Really, Bart?” Jaime was already close to yelling as he spoke.

Bart visibly winced.

“Calm down--”

“Calm down?! You don’t get to tell me to calm down! I was worried for a week-- I tried to contact you but you never picked up, you never tried to tell me you were ok! I just got a note from you after you left without saying a word to me!”

“Jaime I know this looks bad but I can explain--”

“Explain away, I’d really like to see you try.”

Bart looked hurt. What exactly did Jaime think he was up to? He knew he’d messed up, and he’d wanted to explain things to Jaime, but he didn’t know how to do that before and he definitely didn’t know how to do it now. It meant getting into a lot more than he was ready for.

“...I wouldn’t do anything to hurt you on purpose, you know that right?” Bart asked in a quiet voice.

“Bart, I don’t know that right now…” Jaime sounded tired, “This is the second time you’ve disappeared. You still haven’t told me what happened the first time and you didn’t even try to tell me what was going on this time.”

“What do you think I did?” Bart asked, frowning. It wasn’t a real question, Jaime knew. It was more the implications of what Jaime was alluding to being brought up.

“The scarab isn’t suggesting anything good.”

Bart sighed and ran a hand through his hair roughly. He bit his lip and tried to hold back tears he hadn’t realized were forming. The last time he felt this stressed out was when he’d gone back in time to change the future.

“Ok. Ok, I can explain,” He tried to ignore the way his voice cracked, “Just...give me a minute.”

“No--”

Before Jaime could finish his protest Bart was gone. Jaime could hear the bedroom door closing and any other time he would have respected Bart’s need to figure things out, but right now he was just getting angry again. The more Bart avoided just telling him, the more horrible ideas formed in his mind. Was Bart really with someone else? Was that person here right now?

He hadn’t fully realized he was walking towards the bedroom until he was face to face with the door. He tried to mentally prepare himself to find Bart with another man or woman, but when he opened the door he found he couldn’t have prepared himself for seeing Bart with a baby. Presumably Bart’s own child, the scarab provided.

“Bart…?” Jaime could hardly find words. “Since when do you have a baby…?”

“Fuck, Jaime, just,” Bart’s voice cracked horribly and he found he couldn’t even look at Jaime while he tried to explain, “I need it to go back to sleep. I-I thought if I checked on it we could talk but it woke up again…”

Jaime vaguely realized his yelling may have been a contributing factor. He’d have to apologize for that later.

“I’m kind of ok with kids.” Jaime provided, “Maybe I could try?”

Bart handed the kid over without a word. Jaime awkwardly held the baby at first, but got the hang of things quickly. The baby didn’t go back to sleep, but it seemed content with being held by Jaime.

“Is this ok?” Jaime asked, looking up at Bart, “I don’t think it’s tired…”

“...Yeah, yeah this is...fine.” Bart didn’t seem fully in the moment, but he motioned for Jaime to follow him back into the living room anyways so they could talk.

Jaime very carefully held the baby still as he followed, almost as if he were afraid he would drop it. Once he settled on the couch he realized the baby looked a lot like Bart, if eye and hair color were anything to go from.

“So...this is your baby?” Jaime asked, still focused on the kid, “...has your eyes…”

“Um...yeah...that’s mine, I guess,” Bart said, “I was gonna tell you. I swear.”

“Then why didn’t you tell me when you found out?” Jaime frowned. “Why did I have to find out like this?”

“....I wanted to get rid of it before you found out.” Bart admitted, “I figured if I got it out of the way then we could just go back to normal…”

“Bart…” Jaime sighed, “What do you mean get rid of it?”

“I’m gonna drop the kid off at an orphanage or something,”

“But this is  _ your _ baby…”

“Yeah, and I never asked for a baby. I never asked for  _ any _ of this.” Bart spat. “I am not keeping that...that  _ thing _ !”

The baby let out a small noise that immediately replaced Bart’s anger with fear.

“Please tell me it’s not going to cry again…”

“No, no…” Jaime assured him, “That was a happy noise,”

Bart stayed quiet for a moment as he watched Jaime with the baby. He was a lot better at this than he was. Then again, Jaime hadn’t been his with the sudden information he was a father just a few days prior, but...Jaime was a natural at this.

“You’re...too good at that…” Bart said, earning a curious look from Jaime. “Keeping the baby happy.”  He clarified.

“I really have no idea what I’m doing…” Jaime admitted, but he smiled a little anyways, “I think you’d be great at this if you gave it a shot, for the record.”

“Jaime.” Bart scolded. “I don’t think either of us are ready to be a dad.”

“I don’t know...it’s kind of cute. I mean, come on, the kid looks just like you.”

Bart didn’t exactly smile at the comment, but he didn’t look flat out angry either. Jaime considered it a small win.

“You want me to keep the baby...that’s where this is going…” Bart quietly said. “Jaime I really don’t...think I’m cut out for this.”

“I disagree.” Jaime said casually, “But I’m not you. I don’t know everything that...led to this…”

“You deserve to know.” Bart said honestly, “I...I know I need to explain this.”

“Does it have to do with the last time you were gone?”

Bart nodded.

“You told me you were hurt…”

“Yeah...I kinda was… I uh...met a girl. Things got weird and uncomfortable, like really fast…” He sighed shakily, “Um...I got a call from her saying she just had a baby and she thought it was mine. She didn’t want it so…” Bart shrugged, trying more to convince himself that it wasn’t a big deal. “I didn’t  _ want _ to be a part of any of this. I didn’t want to be involved with her and I didn’t want a  _ kid _ from whatever fucked up  _ mistake _ happened.”

Jaime stayed quiet for a moment. He could understand a bit better why Bart was so against the idea of keeping the child, but at the same time Jaime didn’t feel right leaving the kid at some orphanage. He wouldn’t force Bart into keeping the kid, but maybe they could come to an understanding of sorts.

“I get that...but...I don’t know, maybe someone we know would be willing to watch the kid…”

“You’re really eager to keep that kid aren’t you?” Bart tried to smile but it came off as forced more than anything. “I didn’t think you’d be happy about me having a kid.”

“I don’t know how I feel about all of this… I can’t imagine how you’re feeling, so I know me being confused doesn’t mean much… But I’m not angry. I’m not overjoyed either, but I’m not as opposed to the idea of the kid as you are.” Jaime replied honestly. “No matter what you do, I’m going to support. Even if that means you giving the baby up for adoption, but if you did keep it, I want you to know I wouldn’t leave you to deal with this on your own.”

It didn’t change Bart’s mind right away, but Jaime’s support was enough for him to reconsider. He’d been under the impression the child would ruin everything and that he’d be left struggling all alone, but now he saw that there was a possibility that the kid wasn’t the worst thing that happened to him. Yes, he was ill prepared and the situation stressed him out, but maybe if he had more time to accept this and prepare himself it could work out.

After a while of discussing things with Jaime, Bart decided to come clean about the baby to the League, family, and friends. He explained things to Tim first and worked up the courage to ask him if he could help with watching the baby until he knew exactly what he wanted to do. Tim didn’t have a problem with it, but Bart understood they were going to have to talk about this later.

“Tim said he’d watch the baby.” Bart told Jaime as he got off the phone, “I owe him big time.”

“Expect to be Nina’s favorite babysitter in the future.” Jaime said with a small laugh, “But that...makes me realize something. We can’t just keep calling your kid ‘the baby.’”

“You want me to come up with a name?”

“Yeah, I mean, ‘the baby’ is a unique name and all but I think your kid deserves better.”

Bart thought for a moment.

“...Hayden. I like Hayden.”

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is a small side story from the main AU explaining how Bart's child comes about! It will show his relationship with Jaime as well.


End file.
